Explosión en mi cabeza

As usual, the theme of my life here in Spain has been busy most recently. Much too busy, in fact. It´s obnoxious how things are structured with all of our huge deadlines immediately following the 2 and a half (or is it a full 3?) weeks of vacation and holidas we have...

Mi madre described April as The Month of Festivals in Spain, and with apparant good reason. The last three weeks of it are completely packed with holidays and parties and fun crap. This is all well and good, except for the fact that as soon as that´s over I have a book report, two 10-page papers (completely in Spanish), and two huge finals. Oh and just to add to the fun, the papers are 1.5 spaced, not double. Madre mía. I haven´t quite figured out how I´m going to manage this load, but I´m sure I´ll have some stroke of genius soon. This sucks especially hard since it´s getting hotter than ever and the beach is that much more appealing.

Something else to add to the stress column is how there´s been a ton of mosquitos getting into my room every night and buzzing around in my ear making it impossible to stay asleep for more than an hour at a time. I wouldn´t care if they came in and just bit me (which they do anyway), but they seem to feel the need to fly directly around or in my ear too. The result is that I´m exhausted during the day and can barely focus or speak Spanish in any sensical manner. Apparantly I need a good night´s sleep to be able to think in Spanish even a little bit. Someone mentioned there are mosquito repellent devices that you can plug into the wall, so I´ll have to be looking into that soon. It´s too hot to sleep with the windows closed.

Also, I did terrible on both my tests last week. Oops. While I suppose the language one was my own fault, I´m pissed about the Literature one, since my teacher wouldn´t review with us even though I asked her to the class before. This past class, she actually had the nerve to cuss us all out because we all did so terrible and didn´t study at all (which I´m quite certain we all did). She claimed the material was so easy, but if we didn´t know which of the 30 pages of photocopies to look over, how the hell were we supposed to know which specific definitions she wanted us to memorize? I was contemplating going to the program director and complaining as I did ask her for review and all (and it was 1/4 of my final grade), but I don´t think I´d be able to make my case unless more than one of us said something. Nobody else in my class seems that pissed off though, so I´m kind of on my own here. Plus I don´t want to do anything to anger the teacher more and make her like me less. She gave us some extra credit work to do to make up for the all around bad show, but I´m writing in my blog instead of doing it right now.

Alright, enough bitching, there are other things going on as well.

There was a protest being held yesterday on campus. I followed all the noise to its source and found Arantxa, my intercambio, in the crowd. I asked her qué pasa about and she explained that the school wanted to disintergrate the English Studies program and force all of its participants into a new European Studies program. Basically what this means is that all of the students studying English language and culture (a set "major" or course of study) will have to stay in school for an extra period of time and learn additional languages to fufill the new European Studies requirements. The people in the English Studies program like the current program because they can focus solely on English and England- a country that actually has a real economy (unlike Spain) that they can move to and get a job in after they graduate- and don´t want to be concerned with having to learn German, French, Italian, or whatever other language that they have no intention of ever using. I don´t understand why an English-specific program can´t be maintained for those who want only to deal with England and only have to be in school for 3 years, but I´m sure the entire situation is a lot more complicated than I understand it to be.

It struck me hard, however, that the students actually cared enough to protest about something like that. Protests practically never happen on college campuses anymore in the States, and it´s hilarious to think one ever would occur because the school decided to eliminate one major to create a new, similar, one. Students are so apathetic back home I feel. Tuition at Northeastern gets raised several hundred dollars a year, something that I think is legitametely worth protesting over. Yet the most you ever hear from students (even those that are paying for their entire education themselves) is a whiny complaint to their friends. They could eliminate the Pharmacy major at our school and I don´t think they´d get more than a half dozen angry letters. A protest? Are you kidding? The kicker is, my History teacher told us that this was strangely the first protest this year and usually there are at least 2 a month, and even more during the warm months. Maybe this doesn´t get you going as much as it does me, but it´s certainly food for thought.

I´m gonna cut this short while I´m ahead, so I can actually get a little bit of work done before class. Hopefully this won´t be my last post before I head out for Spring Break, but I´m pretty much up to my ears in work until the end of the semester, so from here on out, posts might be sparse in number and short in length. I´ll try not to let this be the case, but as my computer time will be more and more limited, I´m going to need to spend most of it researching or typing papers- especially since the university will be closed for most of the month, and I´ll have to pay for every minute I have at an internet salon.

Be good.